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W. Woolsey Johnson
(1841 - 14 May 1927)
American mathematician and educator who was Professor of Mathematics at the United States Naval Academy for nearly half a century and retired (1921) as a Commodore, which rank was given by special act of Congress in 1913. He wrote several books on higher mathematics.
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Science Quotes by W. Woolsey Johnson (1 quote)
The comparatively small progress toward universal acceptance made by the metric system seems to be due not altogether to aversion to a change of units, but also to a sort of irrepressible conflict between the decimal and binary systems of subdivision.
[Remarking in 1892 (!) that although decimal fractions were introduced about 1585, America retains measurements in halves, quarters, eights and sixteenths in various applications such as fractions of an inch, the compass or used by brokers.]
[Remarking in 1892 (!) that although decimal fractions were introduced about 1585, America retains measurements in halves, quarters, eights and sixteenths in various applications such as fractions of an inch, the compass or used by brokers.]
— W. Woolsey Johnson
'Octonary Numeration', Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society (1892),1, 1.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
